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PSALM11918.ORGOur blog provides the Psalm11918.org contributors with a channel for less formal communications with our readers.  Some of our blog entries are about personal events while others are just plain silly and fun. 

In any case, we hope you enjoy and are blessed everything you find here! :)

- The Psalm11918.org team

Tuesday morning.  7:20AM.

Traffic is really backed up on the off-ramp today.

Cars take turns: one car exits and one car enters and one car exits— until Red Suburban Man.

I exit... well, try to exit.

Red Suburban Man wants to skip common courtesy and
HEY! YOU ALMOST RAN INTO MY NEW CAR, YOU JERK!

My new car honks to let Red Suburban Man know his social skills need improvement.

A window rolls down and Red Suburban Man gives me two small gifts: the bird and a loud "F--- YOU!"

Like a scene from The Matrix, time... slows... to a sudden... crawl...

HANDS ON A GLOBE- Image by © Royalty-Free/CorbisApril 22 is Earth Day.  According to the EarthDay.org website, "Earth Day broadens the base of support for environmental programs, rekindles public commitment and builds community activism around the world through a broad range of events and activities.  Earth Day is the largest civic event in the world, celebrated simultaneously around the globe by people of all backgrounds, faiths and nationalities.  More than a billion people participate in our campaigns every year."   

Sometimes people confuse Earth Day and the environmental movement with tikkun olam [תיקון עולם].  Tikkun olam is a Hebrew phrase that means "repairing the world" or "healing the world".  While it can potentially include environmental considerations, Judaism primarily teaches this concept as a shared responsibility to take social action and pursue social justice.

So... Earth Day... Tikkun Olam... social justice...

How should a believer understand these ideas and act on them?  What did Messiah say about these things?  Let's start at the beginning:

 

iStock 000020977795Small 300Jerry sat staring at his laptop screen in unbelief.

"Fourteen hundred dollars?!? Where am I going to get fourteen hundred dollars?  This stupid software was supposed to make sure you got a big fat refund on your taxes not a giant bill!"

"What if I just... fudged some of the numbers a bit?", he thought out loud.  Jerry glanced around to see if his wife or kids had heard him.  No?  Good.  They usually avoided him while he was doing taxes or paying the bills because he got so irritable.

Hmmm... lower the income levels or raise the taxes paid?  No, too obvious.  The numbers wouldn't match the W-2.  How about his deductions?  Hmmm.  Maybe the wife had dropped some extra money in the collection tray at church when he wasn't looking. Yeah... that would shift things in his favor a bit.

With a few clicks Jerry adjusted various numbers in his return until he was receiving a small refund.  A few more clicks and he was on the "transmit to the IRS" page.

Jerry sat staring at his laptop screen.  He was about to lie on his taxes.  "It's only a few hundred dollars." he thought to himself.  "The Feds will never notice it.  It's not like I'm Bernie Madoff ripping off people for millions."

Jerry sat thinking for another few moments and then reached for the mouse...

As in years past, we've put together a list of moedim dates for 2013 so you can have them all in one place.

Purim- Sunday, February 24th

Pesach- Monday, March 25th

Chag HaMatzot- Tuesday, March 26th (beginning at sundown on the 25th)- Monday, April 1

Second Passover- Wednesday, April 24th (beginning at sundown on the 23rd

Shavuot- Wednesday, May 15th (beginning at sundown on the 14th)

Tish B'Av- Tuesday, July 16th (beginning at sundown on the 15th)

Yom Teruah- Thursday, September 5th (beginning at sundown on the 4th)

Yom Kippur- Saturday, September 14thth (beginning at sundown on the 13th)

Sukkot- Thursday, September 19th- Thursday September 26th. The sabbaths for Sukkot begin Wednesday the 18th and Wednesday the 25th at sundown.

Chanukah- Thursday, November 28th (Thanksgiving Day!) - Thursday, December 5th.

 

All of the moedim [appointed times] point to Messiah.  As we greatly long for His return, so too, should we eagerly look forward to these, His appointed times, as glimpses of Him until He does return.

 

Otherwise entitled, "Why Do We Seem to Exchange One Idol for Another?"

Update:The weekend of Jan 10-13, Tim Hegg visited our group in San Antonio. While he was here, he addressed some of the concerns we initially aired in this article. We revised the article and reposted after some clarifications were made.

 

In the Fall 2012 issue of Messiah Journal from First Fruits of Zion (FFOZ), Boaz Michael makes an impassioned plea to his readers that they reconsider and reject One-Law and Two-House teachings as particularly insidious forms of anti-Semitic replacement theology.

He is right.

Some "One-Law" groups disregard the fact that the Torah itself makes distinctions between different groups.  This is a form of idolatry in which Torah observance becomes the object of desire regardless of what the Torah and the apostles actually say.

"Two-House" theology ignores the fact that that the apostles rejoice at Gentiles (rather than "lost tribe members") coming to salvation.  This is a form of idolatry in which biological heritage in Israel becomes the object of desire regardless of what the Apostolic Writings actually say.

BUT... 

Torah Portion

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or view this week's triennial cycle reading.

Today is

Yom Shishi, 19 Adar II, 5784

Friday, March 29, 2024

 

Learn more about this date in history.